Doug Shaw wrote:Oh hell. Someone has dared to hint that it might have been colder somewhere than it was in Craig. Now we're going to have to hear from Scott about how Craig is actually colder than the dark side of Pluto on most days of the year, and is the only place in the known universe to have recorded a temperature below absolute zero.

This whole site is devoted to doing the same thing 54 ways. I enjoy beating dead horses.

Oh hell. Someone has dared to hint that it might have been colder somewhere than it was in Craig

Not sure what you mean. Several places are usually colder than Craig. Tabernash (where the -14F was recorded) is certainly one of them. Has the recent cold weather put you in foul mood? You don't have to participate in talking about the weather if you don't want to.

Don't need to tell me about Tabernash. Lived there many years ago. One morning driving to work, as I slipped down into the valley, the thermometer on the Audi read -50. The snow sort of crunches at that temperature, and hardly anything works.

Ah, Tabernash. Lived in the cabin that Jack built. True story. Jack was my landlord. Till he went berserk and tried to kill his wife, burn down his house (up the road) and commit suicide. The sheriff dragged him out of the burning house. Jack then had a free temporary residence in Pueblo for a while.

But that's a whole nuther story. Cold as it got on winter mornings, it was a great place to live. Miss it. And bumpin' the Jane on tele's... Brings back some good memories.

It was 24 above when I got up this morning here in SW Springs. Getting ready for a bike ride. I really suffer nowadays.

That Tabernash Jack story is a good one, though for pure death and destruction I'm still partial to the tale of Marvin just down the road in Granby. He lost a zoning dispute, fortified a bulldozer with concrete and steel, and demolished City Hall, the mayor's house, and a good part of Granby before doing in himself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer

One of my favorite lines about Marvin came from Ed Quillen, the old Denver Post mountain columnist who had once newspapered in Kremmling: "Nobody ever moved to a small mountain town because they liked people."

Oh hell. Someone has dared to hint that it might have been colder somewhere than it was in Craig. Now we're going to have to hear from Scott about how Craig is actually colder than the dark side of Pluto on most days of the year, and is the only place in the known universe to have recorded a temperature below absolute zero.

Dancesatmoonrise wrote:Lived in the cabin that Jack built. True story. Jack was my landlord. Till he went berserk and tried to kill his wife, burn down his house (up the road) and commit suicide. The sheriff dragged him out of the burning house. Jack then had a free temporary residence in Pueblo for a while.

Dancesatmoonrise wrote:Lived in the cabin that Jack built. True story. Jack was my landlord. Till he went berserk and tried to kill his wife, burn down his house (up the road) and commit suicide. The sheriff dragged him out of the burning house. Jack then had a free temporary residence in Pueblo for a while.

For real?!

Dancesatmoonrise wrote:True story.

True story, yes, but why do folks always focus on the negative parts of the story. I mean, other than the negative temperatures?

Carol used to like the windows that Jack built. Seriously, the guy built the entire house. Doors, windows, trim, everything. It was a cute 900 sf cabin. I laughed when he said the uitility bills would only be $50 a month. He was right.

Of course, the lot had a ton of firewood on it. Me and Jaimee (Carol's daughter) used to skid the logs out of the woods and down the hill to the back of the house - on our mountain bikes. Jaimee was 8 then. It was so cool to have tons of wood piled up back there. Just go out, fire up the saw for an hour, and presto! Two more months of fuel.

I did have to replace the Franklin stove Jack had in there after the second chimney pipe fire. But other than that, the place was great.

So, am I walking into a trap by asking why Tabernash is colder than Craig considering the elevation differences being the opposite? I have never heard of Tabernash before this thread either. What a neat name.

So, am I walking into a trap by asking why Tabernash is colder than Craig considering the elevation differences being the opposite?

Tabernash is one of the coldest populated places in Colorado at night, but it has no official weather station. Fraser is the coldest incorporated town in Colorado and in the lower 48 states, but Tabernash is usually a few degrees colder at night. Maybell, west of Craig, has the all-time coldest recorded temperature in Colorado (-61F), but places like Tabernash and Fraser are colder on average (and at higher elevation) and have hard freezes year round. Temperatures in Fraser (and certainly Tabernash since it's colder at night) have dropped below zero nine months out of the year, something only a few towns in the lower 48 can claim.

All those areas (Fairplay, Craig, Maybell, Tabernash, Taylor Park, Gunnison, etc.), aften have cold nights because of cool air pooling/radiative cooling and they are often colder than the highest mountains at night. In fact, Maybell, the location with the coldest temperature recorded in Colorado is only at 5920 feet elevation, lower than Colorado Springs and not much higher than Denver.